City can do better on emissions

I wanted to thank the City Council for hosting a public hearing on our climate goals Nov. 4. By the mayor’s own admission, no one at the hearing, councilors and the public alike, advocated against addressing climate change. Unfortunately, it’s clear from Marty Pool’s presentation that we will not make our 2030 goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50%. 

So now what? How do we make up for lost time so we’re back on track for the 2050 goal? Some suggestions: (city operations) implement more energy performance contract recommendations to save money and energy; (waste diversion) implement pay-as-you-throw policies, which have been shown to vastly increase composting (see payasyouthrow.org for best practices); provide public transit to the airport during peak times of the day, and seek creative ways to fund this work (establishing airport fees, changing the sustainability fee and leveraging public-private partnerships.) Ithaca, N.Y., for example, used private investor money to renovate 6,000 buildings. This work can be done without sacrificing other city priorities.

According to Pool’s presentation, Aspen, with a similar budget to Durango’s, allocates several million dollars to climate and sustainability while we only spend a fraction of that. Pool revealed different sources of revenue similar Colorado communities are using to drive down carbon emissions. We can and must do better. Pay now, or pay later with wildfires, droughts and flooding.

– Darcy Hitchcock, Durango